New Wave Outpost Forum

I am a avid 80's fan, I was born in the 80's and sadly missed the best decade of them all. But nevertheless the "New Wave shall rise again!" But I was thinking to myself why did New wave have such a distinctive sound? Why at that point in time did some of the best music of the 20th century come? IMO if you look at the divide in the New Wave revolution by far was dominated by the Brits. Duran-Duran, Spandau Ballet, and Depeche Mode. All came out fairly early in the 80's. Unlike the US which had a massive Disco revoultion and then eventual repression of it after the baseball fiasco in 1979. The UK instead of a wave of hedonism in the UK it was a wave of angst. The economic chaos of the UK in the late 70's with the collapse of the "Mixed economy" made bands like the Sex Pistols and other punks bands appeal to a audience that was tired of the early 70's singer and songwriters movement. In the US it was a economic stagnant era as well, but the American people instead of sulking in there economic morass they went out to dance. In 1979 it was a pivetol moment in music history. With the election of a new Conservative leader in the UK (Margaret Thatcher)and in 1980 the election of another neo-conservative (Ronald Raygun)(lol) the American music scene was thrown into a confused state of denial. It wasn;t disco but it sure did sound like it. In the UK there was a new vibrant energy in a time of even worse economic transition. To uplift the naiton we had such good tunes as "this is planet earth, and Paint me donw", but also we had new wave angst bands like U2 which re-defined the political music. From Punk to new wave. The best year for music it seemed was the year that was the worst economicly,and politcally for the UK, 1982. After the 1982 implosion the music of the new wave began to go into a more uplifting mode as the economy did. So what do u think about the origins of the best era in music?

It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past. . .
Mikhail Gorbachev, (1988)

Wow, great topic. It's weird that there's tons of books and essays on the origins of Punk but not so much of New Wave. I guess if we buy in that New Wave rose from Punk, then maybe it was just the cyclical nature of new music listeners wanting to have some more fun again post punk. I think that combined with the broad availability of quality synths on top of the experimental foundations laid by Bowie, Velvet Underground, and all of Malcolm McLaren's, Iggy Pop's, etc projects and associations plus MTV, all just came together to explode New Wave onto the scene.

My theory is all of a sudden computers were starting to show up in households. It was not a far stretch to see what a computer and synthesizer could do when hooked up together. The technology was so new that it naturally resulted in some fantastic experimentation.

I guess from what I can recall from way back then, many of us found New Wave music to be fresh and exciting, in the late 70's and 80's many of us were tired of hearing Led Zeplin, Journey and REO Speedwagon over and over again, college radio started playing some of the early punk bands and New Wave bands, Ramones, Talking Heads, Lou Reed ,Roxy Music, etc. and scenes started poping up outside of New York , LA, London. A lot of surprising places started having New Music scenes throug out the U.S and U.K. ( Athens, GA, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, New Orleans, etc) I know where I lived in Tampa, FL. they had new music fests and plenty of venues for New Wave and early alternative bands to play. It was a pretty decent size scene even before MTV, and videos, etc. It really was a wave, with lots of artistic types, musicians, and creative folks being part of it, I would say it lasted from 79-87 in my neck of the woods. Things started diverging more after that point, House Music/techno, Industrial, Goth, grunge, ska, alternative rock, etc. I think the whole movement stared as a rebelion against the corporate rock monster, an attempt to mix art with pop music( many new wave musicians were art school students/graduates, drop outs), and an interest to explore the boundries of pop music and try new things, yes good ole experimentation. It also seemed a bit more sophisticated than the fodder on mainstream radio. (Air Supply, Lionel Richie, Night Ranger). I can't really listen to much of the non New wave music of that time period.

James

Here's a link to a piece I wrote on TCPunk (a now-defunct message board) on my opinions of the origin of New Wave. Keep in mind it was composed in about 20 minutes off the top of my head...

http://www.tcpunk.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000357.html

I think what everyone needs to keep in mind is to not over-analyze the music as it was never meant to be a scholorly subject.

So I guess the short answer is kinda like "it's the economy stupid." In this case, "it's the synths stupid."

I agree. I think its because the synths. The synths were so cool. Keyboards Rock, and Key-Tars are cool also.

ME: kajafan86@playful.com
AIM: RaiyoKun (Im online almost all the time)

Not all of New Wave music was synth oreinted. In Fact your best New Wave bands were Guitar Centered bands let me refresh your memory...


The Jam
The Waitresses
XTC
Elvis Costello
The English Beat
X
Gang of Four
Killing Joke
Joy Division
The Police
Blondie
Magazine
Pearl Harbour and the Explosions
The Mutants
The Plimsouls
The Specials
The Selecter
Translator
A Certian Ratio
Television
The Clash
The Offs
Red Rockers
The Payola$




I could go on and barrow from late 70s punk like X-Ray Spex and go on for days.

Then there were half synth half guitar bands that were cool like JAPAN Rob Deen had some great leads and Mick Karn was the best bass player ever. Not to mention Lords of the New Church with former Gutiarist from the Damned Brian James.


Synth is not enough,
jr

You just named most of my truly favorite bands...in some respects, more favored than what some think of as "classic new wave". The big thread I see in your list is a heavy influence of punk, ska, and power-pop of the mid to late 70s. That's definately all part of the movement, but if that were all, New Wave might have been more marginalized (though no less phenomenal).

So maybe synths, videos, glam, and MTV was just the catalyst for exploding the scene into the broad consciousness and putting new ways of making music into the hands of many more people. I think this was the fire on gasoline that made it a defining era rather than just a cool new genre. Whaddya think?

It wasn't just synths that became inexpensive in the late 70's / early 80's. Guitars, basses, and drums also started being manufactured in "budget" models. More instruments of any kind in kids' hands leads to an explosion in new music.

Like Drum Machines?

I can guess that dance pop came about because of synths/loops and drum machines...

My friends say new wave is 'punk with keyboards' I think this isnt correct:

Either way: New Wave is AWSOME and the style/look/sound was just undescribably (buthcered the spelling) cool.

ME: kajafan86@playful.com
AIM: RaiyoKun (Im online almost all the time)

Edited by - Frayo on 09/04/2003 04:42:48

It's also very interesting to hear what others think New Wave really is. Some UK articles for example say things like 1983-84 was the end of New Wave, signaled particularly by the dawn of guitar-driven Smiths, a group I usually respond to by saying they were probably my favorite "New Wave" band. Same for favorites on the other end of the timeframe, groups that Quite Life already mentioned like the Jam, Clash, Plimsouls, Elvis, etc. At that time, I recall even the Police, the Cars, and Pretenders were all clumped into New Wave, or at least into the new music that was playing on your favorite alterno stations - a few years later, they're as mainstream as you can get. I'm liking a broader definition more and more, with "New Wave" signaling the whole Era (a "Revolution!") rather than a too-specific Genre.

I agree with 'myirwin' that the narrow definitions of New Wave like "NEW WAVE = SYNTHPOP" don't apply in my book. I also find it interesting that there are purists out there (usually those a bit older than me ... say late 30's/early 40's) who insist that the New Wave movement should only include what immediately followed after Punk and thereby should be confined to the the 78-80 period. Can't say I blame them when something revolutionary that changes your life becomes compromised and commercialized over time. Again, because New Wave came to mean and encompass so much more, you really can't fight the tide of popular perception, and should therefore embrace a broader definition, for better or worse.

And member '1986' raises some interesting sociopolitical/economic observations that may have created the environment for the movement. Music is indeed a mirror of the times--a lot of history can be gleaned from musical styles and lyrics, revealing the prosperity, turmoil, desperation, denial, etc. of the times.

I have sat down and really thought about it:
Heres my 3.5 cents worth to the debate:

I think New Wave followed punk. It dosent necessarily contain keyboards, yet a lot of it was keyboard-oriented. I have heard several bands on MTV that I immediately said "New Wave" as opposed to punk....

And who on MTV uses keyboards anymore? virtually nobody!

So here comes something that is confusing:
How do you define New Wave (without keyboards)
as opposed to just punk?

This mainly applies to Mike and the guys behind Obscure 80 Vol 1-3..
To me, I would claim 90+% of that as New Wave, weather it had keyboards or not. --I am being too vague

ME: kajafan86@playful.com
AIM: RaiyoKun (Im online almost all the time)

Funny, I was eating lunch today at a local pizza joint where they play music and display the album/artist info on the TV (MusicChoice I think). An interesting little "factoid" pops up about how "roots rock" arose in the mid-80's as a response to the New Wave movement. Never really gave that genre much consideration, but I suppose it was accurate to say that a lot of acoustic/guitar-based bands (e.g., BoDeans, Jason & The Scorchers, John Cougar Mellencamp [John Cougar Mk. II!], Los Lobos, etc.) cropped up during that time offsetting the deluge of keyboard/synth-based pop music on Top 40 radio.

Now it's like the tables have turned, and people are getting sick to death of grinding guitar "alt-rock" and beginning to integrate classic bleepy analog synth sounds again in the spirit of the original New Wave movement.